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REALM
Contributor
Contributor

Creating VM from Ghost VMDK's

Trying to make offsite backups of my VM's for DR.

Option #1

If I use ghost to create a VMDK of a server...

#1 How do I break it up into different disks again, or should I use ghost to create a vmdk of each disk?

#2 Once I copy the vmdk back to esx, how do I create a VM from it without the VMX file?

Option #2:

Can I just copy my VM folders from ESX (vmx, vmdk's, etc.) straight to a USB external drive, and then if we need to restore just copy them back?

Thank you.

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liamkennedy
Contributor
Contributor

This is really frustrating that there seem to be so many questions that are unanswered. When I am trying to find the solution to my question (identical to the question here on how to create a VMX from Ghost VMDK file) all I am finding are these old questions that were never answered. I would recommend the admins on this system either ensure questions are answered - or contain a link to the answer - or remove the question if they remain unanswered for a period of time.

Thank you

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RParker
Immortal
Immortal

OK, first the reason why so many questions are 'unanswered' is because like this question, it's not really a VM Ware related issue. It is and it isn't.

It is because you are tying to get a VM to clone FROM a ghost image, but that's not a VM Ware product. The other reason is maybe people don't have a good answer, because there are different ways to go about it. And also you have to remember this is a SELF help forum, not official product support for Ghost, or VM Ware products, we are users just like you, and we help each other to the BEST of our ability, but sometimes things like this just aren't in our realm of expertise.

But it is for me, and there are hundreds of questions a day, we can't be expected to get to each and every one, we do have jobs Smiley Happy

Now this has a very simple answer. Treat the VM JUST like you would a REAL physical box? How would you ghost something over a network to a physical box? Yes I know on a physical box you can remove the hard drive, but if you couldn't and still needed to ghost an image, how would you do it?

Ghost has a utility called multi cast, there is your answer. You have to create a bootable ghost CD, boot it INSIDE that VM, and setup a Ghost server, to multicast files across the network.

For details on this, google ghost multicast. That's how you find out the particulars.

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RParker
Immortal
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#1 How do I break it up into different disks again, or should I use ghost to create a vmdk of each disk?

There is a setting in ghost to parse the image, but I wouldn't use ghost, clone the VM, that would be better.

#2 Once I copy the vmdk back to esx, how do I create a VM from it without the VMX file?

simple. You just need the vmdk, no other files are required. You create a new VM, tell it to use 'custom', continue as you would for a NEW VM, and when you get to the hard drive, you point the hard drive to use existing VMDK file.

Can I just copy my VM folders from ESX (vmx, vmdk's, etc.) straight to a USB external drive, and then if we need to restore just copy them back?

Yes, that would work. Of course your VM has to be off for this, which is why clone would work better, you can do it while the VM is running, then move the cloned folder.

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liamkennedy
Contributor
Contributor

Rparker

Thanks for the response. I did find the solution earlier on another site (I thought I had replied to this post with that link also... but it is not here.. so maybe I imagined that)..

I din't realize this was an entirely user-supported community... it being a "vmware.com" url I certainly could be excused for thinking that probably. I appreciate <now> this is something you have taken on to do outside of your normal work duties and not on behalf of VMware. Thanks again for doing that.

That being said.. was any part of my request inappropriate? My request was "I would recommend the admins on this system either ensure questions are answered - or contain a link to the answer - or remove the question if they remain unanswered for a period of time".

I can completely see that your answer may be "no I am not going to take that on" (that is entitely your perogative as a user-admin)...

Thanks for posting the answer here also. I know that the next person searching for the same thing will now find the answer that much quicker than I did.

With appreciation

-Liam

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BSNA_BMC_AMC
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Liam,

Could you post the link for the solution you found?

I followed the instruction on this thread and went through the same experience. However, on creating a new custom VM, when I try to select the ghost generated VMDK file, the file doesn't show up the browse dialog.

Many thanks.

Allan

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RParker
Immortal
Immortal

That being said.. was any part of my request inappropriate? My request was

"I would recommend the admins on this system either ensure questions are answered - or contain a link to the answer - or remove the question if they remain unanswered for a period of time".

To that I can only say that like this original poster question, had it been deleted, would not have been found as a useful starting point, and since this is a user based community, a system admin would have to (probably inappropriately) remove questions they don't own. A user in a round bout sort of way NOW creates intellectual property, and by randomly deleting old questions or seemingly dormant questions, would be deleting someone else's work. So you support your own argument against, because you resurrected an old thread, and your research found no answer, so it needed to be 'refreshed'. We didn't have the answer THEN but maybe we have one NOW.

And also to add to that I have seen many users 'I could not find this question posted elsewhere, so I want to ask...' sort of topic. By elminating old entries we are removing all traces and previous history, so a question being answered or NOT being answered does put into perspective those questions we don't know, but at a later date SOME one may have a viable answer. Remvoing the question removes any ability later as a reference, like deleting an entry on Wikipedia, just because you THINK people may not have a use for it still may be of SOME value to someone later. So who is to say what stays and what goes?

That's an unfair advantage (or ability) to bestow on anyone. The user community is a group effort, and the over all count of how many questions (even if brief or seemingly little content) is in itself a representation of the how much content there is on here (this forum).

So while I can agree that such content should be closely monitored better (maybe merged with others like it or put into an archive bin) it can't completely be discounted. Some people also may put thoughts, that may spark other ideas from other users, and deleting anything on here would be a gross neglect of good talent. Many things on here may not be relevant, but the wonderful thing about hosting this on American Soil, is this reinstates the belief we all share which is FREE SPEECH. In this case that applies. We can't just dismiss it like yesterday's oatmeal, that would be unfair to future readers, the author, and VM Ware as representative of its user community.

IMHO Smiley Happy

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RParker
Immortal
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Could you post the link for the solution you found?

Ghost is a tool. Used the same way no matter how its implemented. If you have a ghost image on CD, you can simply boot a VM with that image, and image FROM the CD to the VM hard drive. Same approach is used on a physical server.

That is the solution. A VM is treated no differently from a physical machine, it's just managed differently, but it has a CPU, memory and a disk, and a network interface to get you on your network, so if you use that method you can use Ghost.

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